Star Wars Rebels: Empire Day (S1Ep7) – Review

First and foremost I must thank everyone for tearing themselves away from Dragon Age: Inquisition (or was that just me?) to read this review for episode seven of Star Wars Rebels. For the past couple of weeks I have been speculating that the show will continue to get better and better and it simply just does. So, as not to keep repeating myself I will simply say- oh my goodness that episode was so good!

RECAP

The Empire is celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Emperor Palpatine’s rise to power. Ezra has been in a bad mood since the onset of the holiday and returning to Lothal but still decides to join the crew in taking advantage of the distracted Empire to destroy the new experimental TIE-Fighter at its unveiling ceremony.

With the Empire hot on their tail the Crew take refuge in Ezra’s childhood home. Returning home brings back old memories as Ezra shares that the Bridger’s used to run an underground pro-rebellion radio show from their basement. While hiding out the Crew also stumble onto a Rodian technician who holds not only a valuable cache of information about the Empire but also the key to Ezra’s parents disappearance.

MY TWO CENTS

Finally the Ezra backstory episode we have been demanding (or perhaps that I have vocally demand of my TV from my nice comfy chair).

There has been a lot of speculation about how this series will fit into the bigger picture of the Star Wars universe and it feels like we are now starting to see bigger hints and foreshadowing at Rebels place in the pantheon. In this episode we got a peak at the new “experimental” TIE-Fighter, which of course is kind of a big deal.

I think what I like most about this episode is that we finally understand Ezra’s past and why he is the way he is. It wasn’t too much of a leap to think that his angst stemmed from the loss of his parents but now actually getting to know who his parents were and what they were fighting for adds a lot to his character.

Freddie Prinze Jr. continues to shine as Kanan although he plays the character so straight-laced most of the time it is always a delight to see him do something out of character (like play an Empire obsessed father as a distraction).

I honestly cannot heap enough praise on the writers of Rebels for finally giving us something meaty to sink or teeth into which makes watching the show actually a priority more so than just out of loyalty to the franchise. I cannot wait to see where this plotline takes us and I am very excited to keep diving into Ezra’s backstory.